Canon EF 50mm F1.8 II review

Design

The EF 50mm F1.8 II is the cheapest lens Canon makes, and the build quality is commensurate with the price. From the mount at one end to the filter thread at the other, the entire external structure is made of smooth black plastic, and overall this lens gives the impression of being built to a (very limited) budget. Features and controls are kept to an absolute minimum; you get a focus mode switch and a near-vestigial focusing ring, but that's about it. The front element is recessed by about 12mm from the filter thread, in effect providing a built-in hood for reduction of flare, and the barrel is quite broad and stubby to accommodate the focus and aperture motors plus the associated electronics.

Of course one advantage of the minimalist design approach is extremely light weight, and this lens tips the scales at a featherweight 130g, so won't exactly add unwelcome heft to your camera bag. But as the body is unusually large with respect to the optical unit itself, this has the effect of reducing the 'density' of the lens (indeed if it were a sealed cylinder, it would float in water); the overall impression is of anything but solidity.

Compared to the Canon EF 50mm F1.4 USM

Here we see the 50mm F1.8 II alongside the EF 50mm F1.4 USM, which costs more than three times as much. The slower lens is noticeably smaller and less than half the weight than its faster sibling, but that distinctly basic design approach is very evident here. In comparison, the F1.4 lens gains USM focusing with full-time manual manual focus, a focus distance scale, improved construction including a metal mount, and a bayonet fitting for the hood (not to mention that it gathers 67% more light).

On the camera

Mount the lightweight, insubstantial 50mm F1.8 on a higher-end EOS bodies such as the 5D and you could almost be forgiven for forgetting that it was even there; this is one lens which won't be a chore to carry around all day. It's perhaps best matched to the small entry-level EOS models such as the 450D, on which it forms a particularly lightweight and unobtrusive combination ideal for low-light shooting.

The lens's handling is best described as functional; the manual focus ring works OK, but it has a rather loose, imprecise feel and you probably wouldn't want to use it all the time. It is also coupled to the focusing motor when the lens is set to AF; this means that it rotates during focusing, so care must be taken to avoid holding it when using autofocus. Canon also warns against turning the focus ring manually in this mode to avoid damaging the motor or gear train, which means that full-time manual focus is not available.

Autofocus

This lens uses a very basic micromotor to drive the autofocus, which isn't the best system Canon has ever made. AF performance is overall quite similar to the 18-55mm kit lenses, i.e. a little slow and slightly noisy (although a lot better in this regard than some similar systems we've used, such as the Olympus 50mm F2 macro), however the large maximum aperture does mean that it continues to work happily in much lower light levels before starting to struggle and hunt for focus.

In use, the AF generally works very well in good light, but as illumination levels fall it becomes progressively more hesitant and less reliable. It has a disconcerting tendency to misfocus slightly in low light (most visible when shooting with large apertures) and whilst the camera body's AF system must share some of the blame for this, the EF 50mm F1.4 USM does appear to be more reliable in these situations. As always, it must also be noted that focus speed and accuracy is dependent upon a number of variables, including the camera body used, subject contrast, and light levels.

Lens body elements

The lens uses Canon’s all-electronic EF mount, and will fit all of their DSLRs regardless of sensor format (APS-C, APS-H or 35mm full-frame).

A 5mm wide moulded plastic grip is located towards the rear of the barrel, to aid lens changing.

The filter thread is 52mm, and does not rotate on autofocus, which is good news for users of filters such as polarisers. As can be seen, the front element is quite deeply recessed in the barrel.

There's no fitting for a hood, but Canon sells the ES-62 bowl-shaped plastic hood, which clips onto an adaptor ring that itself screws into the filter thread. A screw-in rubber hood would be a cheaper alternative option.

The moulded plastic focus ring is just 5mm wide, and rotates during autofocus. The focus travel is approximately 80 degrees clockwise from infinity to 0.45m, and while the action feels a little loose, it's sufficiently precise to make critical manual focus possible (if not necessarily easy).

The angle of view noticeably decreases on focusing closer, as is inevitable with unit-focusing primes.

A conventionally placed switch on the side of the lens barrel selects between auto and manual focusing modes.

Canon recommends that the focus ring should not be turned manually with the lens set to 'AF', to avoid damaging the motor and gearing; this means that no full-time manual focus option is available on this lens.

Comments

I bought it with my 600D and took more than half of my photo with it, and most of those at f/1.8, only taking the kit lens when 50mm was really too long...

I love it, it gives very good portraits when the light is there up to mid lighting condition, autofocus in low light been a bit bad, but still better than the kit lens. I don't say slow to focus but bad because when it find the focus it is fast and if it doesn't find it fast, better go manual.

I would recommand this for any first time DSLR user that has spend most of the budget on the kit, to get a way to practise with portrait, wide aperture, and fix lens.

I might have prefered a slightly wider lens as it is difficult to get use to be further away from the person to get the all face in the frame.

I found it funny to see photographers that had always user their 18-135 or heavier zoom to take their gear with that for the first time as it is so light.

I had one of these since 2011 when I got it for my Canon 600D and for a lens of this price, is quite good and the picture quality is better than the 18-55mm kit lens I found, especially at f/5.6 and didn't have a lot of chromatic aberration that I noticed the EF-S 18-55mm IS II kit lens did with its not so good purple and green fringing.

I did find this lens has quite a bit of vignetting at f/1.8 and the best sharpness is around f/5.6 though, but its still quite usable at f/1.8 and great for portraits and I have used mine to get interesting shots with the maximum aperture.

I have had my 50mm lens about 4 years and 5 months or so and used it often and have yet to experience the auto focus not working. Saying that, I have noticed the autofocus has stopped working well on my Canon EF-S 18-5mm II Kit lens, and will only occasionally auto focus if I manual focus first, but even when it is auto focused fine, I still couldn't take a photo until I switched it to manual focus.